Immigration, Venezuela and now Greenland: How Stephen Miller became Trump’s ‘prime minister’ and the most powerful man in White House

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller listens as US President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a luncheon in the Rose Garden of the White House on October 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (AFP - File Photo)

Stephen Miller has become the most influential figure in Trump’s second presidency, shaping policy and ideology, especially on immigration and foreign affairs, and driving a more hardline, absolutist vision that is redefining the administration’s direction.

Did our AI summary help?

In Donald Trump’s second presidency, power in Washington no longer flows only through Cabinet departments or formal chains of command. Increasingly, it runs through one man who rarely seeks the spotlight but defines the direction of the administration from behind it. Stephen Miller has emerged as the most consequential figure shaping policy, ideology and execution inside the White House.

Miller’s ascent reflects a deeper shift in how Trump governs. During the first term, Miller was best known as a combative speechwriter and an immigration hardliner. His influence was real, but it was constrained by institutional resistance and internal rivalries. In the second term, those barriers have fallen away. Miller is no longer just advising policy. He is designing it, enforcing it and pushing it further than many believed possible.

The clearest example came early. Immigration became the testing ground for Miller’s expanded authority. He oversaw an aggressive crackdown that went beyond campaign rhetoric, directing a sharp expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and embracing a raid-and-detain model that critics say deliberately weaponised fear. Within a year, the size and reach of ICE had nearly doubled, and enforcement no longer focused only on undocumented migrants but cast a much wider net.

From domestic policy, Miller’s remit quickly expanded into foreign affairs. He played a key role in shaping Washington’s posture towards Venezuela, providing the ideological justification for American military action framed as restoring order but criticised internationally as an erosion of sovereignty. That same worldview now underpins the administration’s most audacious proposal yet: the annexation of Greenland.

Miller has shown little patience for arguments rooted in international law. In an interview with CNN, he dismissed the idea that sovereignty or legal norms should restrain American power. “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said.

He has also framed the idea as settled policy rather than provocation. Miller told CNN that it “has been the formal position of the US government since the beginning of this administration, frankly, going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the United States”.

What makes Miller particularly influential is that he is not merely carrying out Trump’s wishes. He is reshaping them. Even Trump appears aware of how far Miller’s views go. During an Oval Office briefing last October, Trump publicly joked about Miller’s extremism. “I’d love to have him come up and explain his true feelings maybe not his truest feelings,” Trump said, half in jest.

Yet the joke masked a reality. Trump has increasingly deferred to Miller, especially on immigration. Positions Trump once treated as tactical have hardened into ideology. Earlier in his political career, Trump spoke sympathetically about migrant labour in agriculture, food processing and even his own businesses. That language has largely disappeared, replaced by a worldview that sees immigration itself as a threat.

Miller has been unapologetic about pushing this shift. According to The Atlantic, during debate preparations in 2024, Miller clashed sharply with a more moderate Trump ally over immigration. Frustrated, Trump cut in and said, “Stephen, if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you.” Miller’s response was blunt. “That’s correct,” he said, before continuing the argument.

Inside Trump’s political universe, Miller’s dominance is widely recognised. Steve Bannon, a former adviser and early architect of the Maga movement, has openly described Miller as the “prime minister” of the United States. In an interview with The Atlantic, Bannon explained Miller’s instinct for control. “He always understood where power lies. No matter what he can be coaching a Little League team Miller can very quickly analyse,” he said.

Miller’s rise is not just a story about one adviser accumulating influence. It reflects how Trump’s second term has evolved into a more disciplined, ideological project. Where impulse once drove policy, Miller now supplies doctrine. He is not a yes man, nor merely an enforcer. He is the architect of a harder, more absolutist vision of American power, one that is reshaping the presidency from the inside out.